Interdisciplinary Bioscience BBSRC DTP DPhil

University of Oxford

The Oxford Interdisciplinary Bioscience Doctoral Training Partnership (DTP) is a four-year DPhil/PhD course supported by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC).

The course that provides innovative training for graduates from a life science, physical science or computational and mathematical science background who wish to conduct leading-edge bioscience research.

Research areas within the programme include integrative animal and plant biology, mechanistic molecular and cellular biology, and bioscience for food, industry and health (including crop science, animal health and welfare, synthetic biology, industrial biotechnology and the development of innovative approaches for drug discovery and pharmaceutical production).

The majority of research projects undertaken by Doctoral Training Partnership (DTP) students involve 'transformative technologies', which include advanced imaging and data analysis techniques, the development and application of new and emerging methods and technologies, mathematical modelling, omic and systems biology approaches, and innovative approaches to address the three Rs. The DTP does not support research focused on human diseases and disease processes or abnormal conditions. The DTP supports research on livestock species and managed land (for example agriculture) and support studies on wild species only when they act as suitable model to provide wider understanding of biological processes.

The course is led by the University of Oxford in partnership with nine world-class research organisations - the Pirbright Institute, which provides the UK’s national capabilities for the study and control of viral diseases of livestock, Oxford Brookes University, and five research organisations at the Harwell Campus Oxford (Diamond Light Source, ISIS Neutron and Muon Source, STFC Central Laser Facility and the Research Complex at Harwell), which provide the UK’s national capabilities for synchrotron science, neutron science and laser science, and the new Rosalind Franklin Institute, which supports the development of new methods for life science research in areas such as imaging, spectroscopy and structural biology.

The DTP is also partnered with the Novo Nordisk Research Centre Oxford, an innovative target discovery and translational research institute and the Ineos Oxford Institute, which focuses on tackling the global challenge of anti-microbial resistance. The DTP’s training programme draws on expertise in all nine partner organisations and students will have the opportunity to learn about the facilities and expertise available across these organisations during the initial training phase. All students have a primary supervisor within one of the ten partner organisations, and a secondary supervisor from within the partnership who provides additional support and expertise.

You will undertake a four-year doctoral training programme. In your first term you are based at the Doctoral Training Centre (DTC) at the University of Oxford and undertake an individually-tailored training programme that includes training in research skills such as mathematics and statistics, programming, imaging and image analysis, bioinformatics, and modelling biological processes and systems. You can also access a wide variety of additional training provided across the partnership throughout your doctoral studies.